Movie review: ‘Wish You Were Here’ an intriguing vacation-gone-wrong thriller

The Aussie import “Wish You Were Here” offers a distinctive, highly effective take on the vacation-from-hell thriller. First-time director Kieran Darcy-Smith, working from a powerful script he wrote with wife — and the film’s co-star — Felicity Price, so consistently tightens the screws on the unfolding events you can practically hear the irrevocable twists.

The story, told largely in the present but with slowly revealing, well-structured flashbacks, outwardly involves the disappearance of a Sydney, Australia, businessman, Jeremy (Antony Starr), while on a freewheeling trip to Cambodia with new girlfriend Steph (Teresa Palmer), Steph’s sister Alice (Price) and Alice’s husband, Dave (Joel Edgerton).

But what happens in Cambodia doesn’t stay in Cambodia: It nastily follows Jeremy’s three co-travelers back to Sydney, where an investigation into his vanishing quickly ensues.

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And that’s when things turn increasingly devastating, particularly for Alice and Dave, whose marriage and family (two kids, one on the way) suddenly hang in the balance as the first of several awful truths is divulged.

While the film has its moments of action, it’s primarily a deeply wrenching, emotionally authentic adult drama about bad choices — some unplanned, some more calculated — and their inevitable repercussions.

Anchored by a superb performance by Edgerton (“Warrior,” “The Great Gatsby”) as a seemingly average Joe torn from his comfort zone, “Wish You Were Here” is mystery moviemaking at its most intriguing.

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‘Wish You Were Here’

MPAA Rating: R for language, some drug content, brief sexuality and violence.

Running time: 1 hour, 28 minutes.

Playing: At Landmark’s Nuart Theatre, West Los Angeles.